Ubuntu – Can I replace the desktop environment

desktop-environments

I'm considering trying out GNOME and maybe changing to it, but I've heard that installing multiple desktop environments (so you can access them both from the login screen) can make your desktop do weird things.

When 16.04 releases, I would like to change my Kubuntu 15.10 KDE desktop to a GNOME one (or changing to Ubuntu GNOME 16.04?), is that possible? If not, when I upgrade, can I later change my system to Ubuntu GNOME 16.04? Can I do this without wiping my system? I do not want to reinstall everything again.

Best Answer

Of course you can. You can install any desktop you want. Maybe, if you install antoher desktop you could have some issues in design for example, maybe the desktop is not exactly like photos. If you want a full integration of Gnome with Ubuntu, try Ubuntu Gnome.

How install Gnome:

sudo apt install ubuntu-gnome-desktop

If you want to try gdm, choose gdm instead of lightdm as the display manager when prompted.

Reboot.

Note: if it turns out that gdm isn't your cup of tea you can go back to lightdm by issuing the command sudo dpkg-reconfigure lightdm and you will once again get to choose.

Related Solutions

Ubuntu – Switching window manager/desktop environments

Just install the one that you want. For example to install LXDE, just press Ctrl+Alt+T on your keyboard to open Terminal. When it opens, run the command below.

sudo apt-get install lxde

for XFCE

sudo apt-get install xubuntu-desktop

for Gnome

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gnome3-team/gnome3

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install gnome-shell

Once you install the one you want, log out, choose the one you want, and log back in.

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Ubuntu – Do many desktop environments slow down the system

My compliments for the desire to try out alternatives, and not stick to 'out of the box' -- that's the FOSS attitude!

Unless you have concurrent users running different desktops at the same time, the other desktop environments will not slow down the system. They are mainly sitting statically on the disk.

In fact, you are likely to find out that some lightweight desktop environments will provide a snappier user experience overall, notably on lower end machines. If you particularly like one, you could even consider replacing the ubuntu-desktop package by the desktop environment of your choice.

If you want blazingly fast (and completely austere), try running only X with a window manager. Ah, the good old days ...

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Ubuntu – Switching window manager/desktop environments

Ubuntu – Do many desktop environments slow down the system

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